Those of us who've been paid quite well to work on those trucks for a long time know there are enough differences between the last non intercooled engines (97) and the first intercooled engines (99 model year, 98 build date) to say that his older truck will be a good runner.
Sure they have common problems, but so do Dodges, GMs, all of them can be classified as "junk" if we want to start getting technical.
I'll say this on record, the 12 valve 5. 9 Cummins may be a better engine, but the Dodge is *not* a better truck.
Flame me, go ahead..... I'm ready.